urban gardening

Over the past couple of years, we’ve dug into a number of projects that redeveloped outdated infrastructure into new recreational and green spaces, from Staten Island’s Freshkills Park (a former landfill) to Missouri’s Katy Trail (an old railroad line) to Germany’s Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (a closed blast furnace works). The Germans clearly have a knack for this whole reclamation thing: two years after shuttering the legendary Tempelhof Airport in Berlin (the site of the 1948-49 Berlin airlift), city officials began discussing ways to reuse the land (which, according to The Local, is nearly as big as Central Park). Their broad plan: a park. Berliners, however, have taken it upon themselves to transform the space for bicyling, rollerblading, cooking out, and urban gardening.

Urbanites with no yard space can get pretty creative in finding places to start a garden: from fire escapes to vacant lots. A new concept, Urbio, allows you to stop searching for space and start gardening: if you’ve got a wall, you’re good to go.